Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are specialized diodes made from semiconductor material or materials. LEDs differ from standard diodes in that, when LEDs are energized by small amounts of electric current, they emit light that is visible to humans. Early generation LEDs generated primarily red, yellow, or green colored lights, but relatively recent advances in LED technology provide blue and white LED lights as well. White LEDs may be particularly bright, and, because they are made of a stable, solid state material, have a very long working lifetime. Additionally, LEDs operate at relatively low voltage, and their electrical current requirements are decreasing as LED technology matures.
Although LEDs operate at relatively low voltage, in general, individual LEDs do not generate a large amount of light, such as for room lighting, or even for general reading, for example. Instead, multiples of individual LEDs are often grouped together and operated in concert. When added together, light from a group of LEDs may be used to replace general room lighting. As described above, LEDs have a fantastically long operational life, and are therefore cost effective from a replacement standpoint. To gain even wider adoption, however, total cost of operation, including operating cost in the form of electric power should be reduced.
Embodiments of the invention address this and other limitations of the prior art.